How does a film where Denzel Washington is a rogue and imprisoned cop with a metal arm and Russell Crowe is a psychopathic AI residing in a silicon-based body not fully capitalize on either premise? How does a pseudo-tech noir … Continue reading Scene Dissections: A Scene-Eating Crowe
Last night I was watching episode 5 of Moon Knight and then just this morning I have Ghostbusters 2 on in the background. What’s the connection between those two? Aside from playing fast and lose with other entities possessing mortal … Continue reading Pop Optics Forum: Pointy Party Hats and Other Tropes
I have a memory of visiting my sister when she attended Iowa State University, located in Ames. It was the summer of 1996, not exactly sure of when, but likely before my 9th birthday in August. My mother and I … Continue reading The Complicated Feelings of Hometowns
Hey y’all! Posting a random PO Forum as I’ve got Double Dragon on and the scene where they’re roller blading came up and it got me thinking “You know… 90s films really though that roller blading was neat and was … Continue reading Pop Optics Forum: Depictions of Counter Culture in Film
I’ve already written at length about how horror films had a hand in popularizing the concept of movie franchises. In that article, I acknowledge a tendency for those sequels to rewrite or covertly reboot the timeline either due to time … Continue reading Pop Optics Forum: Sequels That Completely Upended The Series
Today is Billie Joe Armstrong’s 50th birthday! Today is also my half-birthday. While half-birthday’s aren’t universally celebrated, I always thought this was a cool as Green Day has been one of my favorite bands of all time. They were the … Continue reading Green Day Thread
Author’s Note: This article previously had referenced the depiction of rape in the film. It was poorly phrased in regards to how it was filmed and not the act of rape it self. Due to that, I have chosen to … Continue reading Scene Dissections Rises From The Grave!
I don’t remember what year I first saw Karate High School. It was a show at The Beat Kitchen in Chicago. It was the year after Tub Ring released The Great Filter and they were headlining the show with KHS … Continue reading Karate High School Day Thread
Danhausen was finally offered a contract from Tony Elite* to work for A&W** and is now making all the human monies. Now he can finally afford a blimp. Several blimps even! Fun fact about Danhausen and I, we share a … Continue reading Danhausen Day Thread
Before getting into the post proper, I want to take a moment to lay out my “refresh” for Pop Optics in 2022. When I first conceived of this series, it was to discuss how a particular piece of pop culture … Continue reading Pop Optics Forum: A Personally Transformative Piece of Pop Culture
I’m not traditional by nature. I won’t say I abhor tradition, but I’m a person of few. Call it contrarian, but there’s always been a need to remain independent at my core. How I present myself isn’t necessarily a representation … Continue reading Pop Optics: The Unconventional Spirit of Christmas
Welcome to the inaugural entry of DisenFranchisement, a sub-feature of Pop Optics that I am dedicating to the exploration of film franchises. I’m going to focus on horror right now because that’s a film genre rife with franchises and long-running … Continue reading Pop Optics: Introducing DisenFranchisement!
Stage Fright is a horror film released in 1987, also under the title Deliria. The plot centers around a theater group rehearsing a musical about a murderer. Soon, an actual killer escapes from an asylum and ends up at the … Continue reading Day Thread Has Stage Fright
When I first thought about writing some sort of retrospective about 9/11, I wanted to do so from my perspective and through a lens I know well: pop culture. Specifically, how the aftermath of 9/11 (in)directly closed the door on … Continue reading Pop Optics: A Brief Reflection on 9/11
So, August 17th is known as National Black Cat Appreciation Day, but there’s also a National Black Cat Day that falls on October 27th. I feel like that’s kind of a cheat, but really, black cats deserve all the attention. … Continue reading Day Thread Honors The Creatures of the Night!
My birthday is officially on the 17th, but I’m celebrating it today because no one parties on a Tuesday. It’s a spooky luau. What makes it spooky? ME! Have fun and Hail Pazuzu! Continue reading Luau of The Damned Day Thread
